stair
part of speech
noun (stair, stairs; staircase)
meaning for a pupil
1) A stair is one step in a set of steps that go up or down inside a building. tree →
2) Stairs (or a staircase) are the whole set of steps from one floor to another. tree →
sense in the lessons
steps counted; stairs climbed between floors, often with a number of steps per floor; in safety: hold the handrail, do not run or play on the stairs, keep them clear of toys; in everyday life: upstairs and downstairs; phrases: «up the stairs», «down the stairs», «upstairs», «downstairs», «flight of stairs»
examples
- There are 15 stairs to the first floor. tree →
- She climbs 20 stairs each morning. tree →
- The house has 3 floors with 14 stairs between each. tree →
- He went up 8 stairs and then down 3. tree →
- Hold the handrail when you go down the stairs. tree →
- Don't leave toys on the stairs. tree →
- My bedroom is upstairs. tree →
- The cat sleeps at the bottom of the stairs. tree →
- They were now on the stairs. tree →
note
Counted things; going up adds, going down takes away. Trap: between floor 1 and floor 4 there are 3 sets of stairs, not 4. Homophone: «stare» (look hard) sounds the same. Usually used in the plural: «the stairs».
In the corpora
- Stairs are one of the places where people at home and at school fall most often, so it pays to use them carefully.
- Never run, push or play on stairs: going fast means a missed step turns into a tumble down many steps.
- Falls on stairs are one of the most common ways people get hurt at home.
- Going down stairs is riskier than going up, because a slip sends you forward and down.
- You should be able to see the steps and your feet when you carry something on the stairs.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «stair» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.